I’m not at the Cup Finals anymore, but thought I’d post some off-day quotes from the coaches. Peter Laviolette was a little snippy last night after his team lost 7-4 in Game 5, and he’s still snippy on the question of whether he’ll start Michael Leighton or not in Game 6.
Incidentally, ratings for last night’s game on NBC were up 54-percent over last year’s Game 5 between Detroit and Pittsburgh (it got a 4.0 rating overall last night). Denver, as usual, was in the top-10 of all U.S. markets in the ratings.

Not much new on the Avs front today.

Coach Laviolette:
Q. Peter, are you sticking with Michael in goal?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: I don’t comment on lineups.

Q. I’m wondering what you remember of Game 5, the Pittsburgh-Detroit series last year, as a partial observer? What you thought at the end of that game in that maybe what happened in those two games? What surprised you?
COACH LAVIOLETTE: Let me go back on that first question. As far as that one, I think you’re always familiar with things that you’ve lived more than you’ve watched. For me, I lived it in 2006. We [Carolina] went up to Edmonton in Game 6 and really got outplayed.
It was a similar game to last night. They were quicker than us and had more opportunities at the net. I think what it does is it makes you remember that there’s just one game — they’re just one game parts of a series. And you really have to remember that, whether it’s good or bad. When things are good, you win a couple of games.
You want to try and separate that, so you don’t feel too good about things, you don’t get too high. Because there’s a good chance the other team just got more desperate. They got a little bit more desperate and things didn’t go our way last night.
But, again, you have to make sure that you are ready for the next game, that you put this one behind you. Because they’re all separate. Just from my experience in 2006, we had a lousy game in 6. We had probably the best game of the year in Game 7. Read more…

Claude Giroux got the overtime game-winner last time out. Game 4? It's up for grabs. (AP)

PHILADELPHIA — We’ll once again be offering live coverage, updates and blog posts from Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The Chicago Blackhawks lead the series 2-1 after Philadelphia won Wednesday off Claude Giroux’s goal 5:59 into overtime in what turned out to be a thrilling, physical back-and-forth match-up at the Wachovia Center in front of 20,297 fans.

Adrian wrote a story for today’s Denver Post on former Avalanche player Ian Laperriere, now a member of the Flyers, and the tough road he’s taken to come back for this Stanley Cup Final series, after taking a slapshot in the eye against the New Jersey Devils and suffering a brain contusion that almost left him entirely blind.

Follow our in-game updates below.

11:06 p.m. | The Flyers have won Game 4 here in Philadelphia 5-3. Philadelphia, consistently familiar with being ruled down-and-out throughout this playoffs, has new life after tying the series at two games each. Game 5 is Sunday in Chicago. Off to the locker room … — DP

11:03 p.m. |The Philadelphia Flyers have scored on an empty net with 25 seconds remaining, virtually assuring them a win in Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals and sending the series back to Chicago on Sunday tied at two. The Flyers’ Jeff Carter scored the goal, his fifth of the playoffs. — DP

10:54 p.m. | The Blackhawks have pulled within one goal thanks to defenseman Brian Campbell, though officials upstairs reviewed it to see whether it was kicked across the line. The score is now 4-3 with 4:10 remaining in the game. The Flyers have sat back a little too much in this final period and let the Blackhawks creep back into this one, and that means this is going to be a tense final few minutes for Flyers fans. The crowd — energetic and loud throughout this game — is suddenly a lot more subdued. The Flyers can’t seem to get control of the puck cleanly in their own zone, perhaps because they’ve exhausted a lot of their energy from earlier in the game. — DP

10:46 p.m. | That didn’t take long. Just seconds after the 5-on-3 started, Chicago scores its second goal. Dave Bolland gets the goal for the Blackhawks — his 7th of the playoffs — with assists from from Duncan Keith and Patrick Kane. This game isn’t finished just yet, and it seemed like only a matter of time before Chicago would get one in after so many close calls. — DP

10:44 p.m. | Well, now this is interesting. About 57 seconds of 5-on-3 hockey about to take place. Chicago finally gets another power play on an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Scott Hartnell first, then a two-minute holding penalty against Bryadon Coburn. — DP

10:38 p.m. | Ville Leino probably wraps it up with that pinball goal. That was his 16th point of the playoffs, tying him with Brian Propp for most points in the playoffs for a rookie in Flyer history. Leino was a former Red Wing, given up by Detroit in a trade for, basically, a song. It’s one of the few really bad trades in the tenure of Kenny Holland as Wings GM.

Flyers have played just a tremendous game. This series is going to last another few days at least, much to the delight of Gary Bettman, the NHL, NBC and Versus. — AD

Is he gonna wear that all night? The Flyers night will be trashed if they end up down 3-0. (AP)

PHILADELPHIA — We’re live here at the Wachovia Center, where we’ll be live-blogging Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals and offering analysis and commentary between the Philadelphia Flyers and the Chicago Blackhawks.

11:17 p.m. | The Philadelphia Flyers have won in overtime just moments after officials called back a heartbreakingly close goal. The Flyers fought … and fought … and … fought … and eventually came out 4-3 winners tonight. But they let the Blackhawks have numerous scoring opportunities and got careless with the puck in their own zone. You can’t fault the Flyers for not fighting when they seemed outmatched, having already done the near impossible to come back down 3-0 against the Boston Bruins.

The Blackhawks’ incredible speed and accurate passing, though, may prove to be the difference in this series. But for now, we await Game 4 Friday night in Philadelphia to see whether the Blackhawks will rebound from the loss and put the Flyers in jeopardy of elimination.

11:13 p.m. | Another potential Flyers goal is under review, and it doesn’t appear this one went in. Officials have ruled no goal here, but, boy, that was about as close as it gets. The puck ran parallel across the goal line, but never actually crossed. After an onslaught of shots by Chicago, that outcome has got to be hard for the Flyers to swallow. This game has been back and forth all night.— Daniel Petty

10:58 p.m. | Well, on to OT here. That was quite a third period, for only having two goals. Both teams could have had a few. Antti Niemi was tremendous in those final 10 minutes for the Hawks and Michael Leighton made a couple of big stops in the final two for the Flyers. Philly keeps being a little shaky with the puck in their own zone at times.

Matt Carle, the former DU kid, has been either great or awful all night. A great breakup of a play one second, a bone-headed turnover the next. It would also behoove him to shoot the puck more when he gets the chance. Has John-Michael Liles invaded his body? — Adrian Dater

PHILADELPHIA – Hello citizens, time to chat again. It’s been a few days. Coming to you live from a Marriott in the Philly burbs, the night before Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals. The series moves to the Wachovia Center tomorrow, with the Flyers in obvious need of a win to make this thing a series.

Always great to be in Philly. Partly, for me, to scratch my history-buff itch. After reading David McCullough’s great book “John Adams” a few years ago, I started to get really interested in that whole American Revolution thing-a-mabob. Finally, after a childhood where the eyes glazed over when it came to anything history related, I got very much into just how our country started.

Tonight, as usual when I’m here, I stopped off at the City Tavern for what turned out to be dinner. It’s the same place where Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and George Washington and Ben Franklin were regulars, for meals, meetings and maybe the occasional spirit or two. Right there, in the same place they sat, I sat – which pretty much blows my mind every time it happens. Here’s my table:

Tomorrow, of course, it’s all about hockey. I picked the Flyers to win the series beforehand, so of course they’re down 2-0 entering Game 3. I don’t know what happened to my series prognostication abilities. I used to nail every one, and I’m on a bit of a losing streak of late.

I think the Flyers still have a shot, but the dispiriting them for them is, they’ve played two pretty good games so far – and each in vastly different styles – and still lost both. They tried to skate with Chicago in Game 1 and that didn’t work. They tried to rough up Chicago in Game 2 and that didn’t work. Now what?

Incidentally, I’ll be visiting a while with Avs GM Greg Sherman tomorrow. He’ll be in Philly for NHL GM meetings, so we’ll get his thoughts on what may lie ahead this summer as far as signings go. The only player to sign so far (other than prospects) has been Adam Foote. I expect a deal at some point soon for Chris Stewart, but the question remains just how much he and the Avs think his new deal should be worth. After his breakout season, he’s in line for a good raise – and you know he and his representatives are probably thinking something in the $2 million-a-year range. I think that would be fair, and maybe even a little more. I mean, the Avs were paying guys like Marek Svatos over $2 million last year, and don’t forget Wojtek Wolski was making over $3 million before he got traded.

No doubt the Avs will say something like “The kid’s gonna get a raise and deserves it, but let’s not get foolish here. He only has one good year on his resume still.”

The NHL salary cap is expected to rise about $2 million from the current $56.7 million, by the way. NHL revenues are expected to come in at about a 4-percent increase over last year – good news for the players. And good news for Avs fans hoping they might make something of a splash in the free-agent market July 1. At least, theoretically it’s good news. We’ll get Sherman’s latest thoughts on the subject tomorrow. Should the Avs try to spend a ton of cash and bring in expensive imports – or do they stick with the “build from within” model?

Just got off the phone with Joe Sacco, and will have a story tomorrow on his being a coach of the year finalist and his thoughts on the season just concluded — and what he thinks needs to improve for next year.

Sacco also passed along a bit of news — he’ll be an assistant coach for the U.S. at the World Championships next month in Germany. The Islanders’ Scott Gordon is the head coach.

Sacco will be coaching against Matt Duchene, who will play for Canada. Still waiting for word whether TJ Galiardi will play for the U.S. team.

Colorado Avalanche player Ryan O'Reilly is credited with the game winner over the San Jose Sharks in the extra period of play in Game 3 of the first round of the NHL Western Conference Playoffs Sunday April 18, 2010 at the Pepsi Center in Denver. (Hyoung Chang, The Denver Post)

Not really sure where to begin on this one. I’ve seen the replays a few times now, and I still am not sure how on god’s green earth Dan Boyle’s backhander from deep in the left corner went past Evgeni Nabokov to end tonight’s 1-0 Avs win in Game 3.

Was Nabokov just so plain bored from inactivity? Were the Sharks feeling sorry for the Avs, who hadn’t seemed to have a shot on goal in about three hours, that they decided to help out with one themselves?

Whatever, as Matt Duchene said after the game, it was the “flukiest” thing he’s ever seen in hockey. And I think I second that. The question lingering after the game was “Did O’Reilly get a stick blade on Boyle’s backhander?” I keep watching the replay, and just can’t really tell. Either way, O’Reilly got the luck of the Irish bounce on that one.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Not a lot of earth-quaking news out of Silicon Valley today for the Avalanche.

Maybe I might want to rephrase that, since yours truly actually experienced what it’s like to be in a real earthquake here, in the 1999 2002 playoffs. There we were, up in the press box in an Avs-Sharks game, when the entire, suspended, free-standing press box started rocking back and forth for a couple of seconds. I forget what it was on the Richter Scale, but I believe it was a 5.9 and it made a lot of news at the time.

Avs practiced today, with most every player taking part. Milan Hejduk didn’t, but that’s a normal thing.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Matt Duchene, left, celebrates with teammate John-Michael Liles after Liles scored a goal against San Jose Sharks during the second period of the first game of the Western Conference Quarterfinals at the HP Pavilion in San Jose Wednesday evening. (Andy Cross, The Denver Post)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — The better team definitely won tonight.

If Craig Anderson needed to do handstands in net, and if this was one of those 2-1 wins where you get outshot 50-21 or something, then it would be a lot easier for the San Jose Sharks to write off their Game 1 loss to the Burgundy and Blue.

But it wasn’t like that.

The Avs outshot the team in teal, 30-26, and were all over the Sharks for large portions of the game, especially the second period. Yes, it was a fortunate bounce at the end that decided this game. But, again, the better team won.

The Avs got totally hosed a couple of times by awful referee Dan O’Rourke in still getting the win. Not to get all homerish here, but O’Rourke could have easily cost the Avs the win with not only a questionable opening-minute call to Chris Stewart, but a bizarre non-call when TJ Galiardi took a high-stick to the mouth from Ryane Clowe in the first period. That should have been a four-minute power-play.

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Greetings from Silicon Valley, where it is slightly chilly and breezy today.

Avs-Sharks Game 1 tonight. It was a fairly routine morning skate, with not a lot of news. Milan Hejduk did not take part in the skate, but no cause for alarm. He frequently skips the morning skate, especially when he skates at practice the day before. So, he will be in his usual spot on the second line tonight.

The third line during the morning skate was McLeod-O’Reilly-Porter, and the fourth was Tucker-Yelle-Hendricks.

Matt Duchene is a go. No further update on Peter MuJeller. Avs wouldn’t say much about what he’s doing back in Denver, other than taking it day by day. Joe Sacco played the “That team has a lot of pressure on them, we’re the underdog” card again, and also took another jab at their previous playoff failures. Sacco said the Sharks have “underachieved” in recent playoffs, and that it is the Avs’ “job” to make that the case again.

I’m not a guy who believes that teams get motivated much by what the other team says about them, but I guess I have been a little surprised Sacco and some of his players have played that card so much.

Terry Frei graduated from Wheat Ridge High School in the Denver area and has degrees in history and journalism from the University of Colorado-Boulder. He worked for the Rocky Mountain News while attending CU and joined the Post staff after graduation. He has also worked at the Oregonian in Portland, Ore., and The Sporting News. His seventh book, March 1939: Before the Madness, was issued in February 2014.

Chambers covers college and professional hockey for The Denver Post. He has written for the Post since 1994, after dumping his first 9-to-5 office job a couple years out of college. He primarily follows the University of Denver hockey team and helps cover the Avalanche.